Extracted Text

The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Narviez spent the fall and winter months in Cuba, where his expedi-tion suffered losses as a result of desertions and a hurricane, and inApril of 1528 he sailed with five ships and 400 men to the west coast ofFlorida, landing near Tampa Bay. There he decided to separate 300men from the support ships and reconnoiter the land, despite protestsfrom the expedition's treasurer, Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca, whothought it foolish to leave the vessels. Narviez mistakenly believed thathe was only a few leagues from the Panuco River, when the actual dis-tance was more than 1,500 miles via the coast. By mid-June of 1528,Narviez's overland expedition, in search of riches and an ideal locationfor a colony, had marched up the interior coast to northwestern Flor-ida, where it remained for approximately three months. Faced withhostile natives and food shortages, Narviez elected to build improvisedbarges and to exit Florida by sea. His command, which had dwindled toless than 250 men, packed themselves into five craft and set out forPinuco on September 22. The first month at sea went fairly well. Hug-ging the coast, the small flotilla approached the mouth of the Mis-sissippi River. On the thirty-first day, according to Cabeza de Vaca,troubles began. A storm caught the barges and tossed them like drift-wood. Several days after passing the mouth of the great river, Narviezreleased his command with the advice that "each must do as he thoughtbest to save himself." His own efforts, however, were insufficient: laterhis poorly anchored boat was blown into deep water off the Texas coastand presumably sunk. On November 6, 1528, the barge bearing Cabezade Vaca and an undetermined number of other men landed near thewestern extremity of Galveston Island. A second boat containing An-dres Dorantes de Carranza, his African-born slave Estevanico, AlonsoCastillo Maldonado, and perhaps forty-five others had apparentlylanded nearby on the previous day, making them the first non-Indiansin Texas.2from the Mexican port of Tampico. Its northern boundary was the Rio Soto la Marina, knownin colonial times as the Rio de las Palmas. See Donald E. Chipman, Nuro de Guzmdn and theProvince of Pdnuco in New Spazn, 1518-1533 (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1967),39-73; William H. Prescott, IIzstory of the Conquest of Mexico, and History of the Conquest of Peru(New York: Modern Library, n.d ), 627-628; Fanny Bandeher (trans. and ed.), The Journey ofAlvar Nirfiez Cabeza de Vaca and IIsZ Companions from Florida to the Pacific, 1528-1536 (1904; re-print, New York: Allerton Book Co., 1922), 1 (quotation). The first name of Cortes is oftenrendered as Hernin or Hernando, but he preferred Fernando. Wagner, The Rise of FernandoCortes, vi2Cyclone Covey (trans.), Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America (1961;reprint, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984), 7, 27-52, 53 (quotation),54-59. Narvicz's boat was blown into the Gulf off Matagorda Bay, not at the Mississippi Deltaas claimed by Frederick W. Hodge. Frederick W. Hodge (ed.), "The Narrative of Alvar Nu'fiezCabeza de Vaca," In Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543 (New York:Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907), 62. See Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo [y Valdes], Hustorna general